Saturday, 1 July 2017

Years ago, people suffered from the menace of high robbery
incidence, but these days, theft of intellectual materials is more rampant.
There is therefore a need for owners of creative works to know how they can
protect their works from intellectual thieves (otherwise known as pirates).

Before more, let me establish one fact straight away- an idea is worthless until expressed in a
tangible form. That is why this article focuses on what you should take
cognizance of in the process of turning your idea to a finished worked.

I pitched on I.T. professionals in this article because
theirs is the most difficult to handle. For one, the internet is the most
unregulated society and that is where I.T. professionals showcase their works. Secondly,
when those works get copied by pirates, millions are lost.

I do not guarantee that your work will not be pirated if
you follow the suggestions in this article, but I assure that you will be
placed in a better position to establish your ownership and defend your claims
against any pirate.

Briefly stated below are seven things you can do to
establish the ownership of your works and thereby prevent them from being
pirated:

If you are a software developer or you
are into programming and coding, embed your name in computer codes that you
generate so that if you need to prove ownership, you are not left stammering.

Keep the master copy (initial design) of
your work. If you have a lawyer, seek his or her counsel for safe custody.

If you have support team that is working
with you on the task of creating the work, ensure that they sign an agreement
which recognizes you or your company as the owner of the work to be invented.
Truth be told, it is easier to get your support team to sign such agreement at
an early stage than when your work starts to attract millions of hard
currencies.

Ensure that your support team signs confidentiality
agreement so that they are under legal obligation to keep your apparatus secret
especially when they choose to move on.

Register your ownership of the work with
relevant government agency. While this is not what primarily gives you
ownership right, it gives a better assurance that the work is yours.

Imprint your trademark in the finished
work. This makes it easier to establish your ownership in case of dispute.
Remember however to first register your trademark with the relevant government
agency.

After you have established your ownership of the work
following the highlighted steps, you can give license to people to use the work
in exchange for a token or even figure out other ways to generate money from
the use of the work.

Most importantly, do not release your work to the public
without first protecting your ownership of it one way or the other.

I am the
Founder of LAW ACCENT; a fast growing consultancy firm that teaches elementary
principles of law to the public. I am also the founding partner of ATTORNEYS’
HAVEN (a Law Practice Firm). I started my career at FALANA & FALANA’S
CHAMBERS where I had a successful stint which saw me rise through the ranks
within a very short time to become the Deputy Head of Property Department, a
position I held until my eventful resignation in December 2015 to focus more on
spreading the knowledge of law to the public.

In the
course of serving under Falana's Chambers, I embraced the view that “LAW is
made for the public (and not for Lawyers), so every person must have a basic
understanding of LAW as it applies to him/her”, it was upon that understanding
that LAW ACCENT was initiated to spread the knowledge of Law to the public.
Over the years, I have become extremely passionate about teaching Law to the
public in a way that has never been done before in Nigeria; I coordinate
training for grassroots people on their rights and duties under Nigerian Laws;
and I also host business advisory training for business people.

I initiated
a yearly series called PEOPLE’S PARLIAMENT in 2014 to bring LAW to the level of
grassroots people. Through the People’s Parliament, many people have been made
to understand their rights and duties under the Nigerian Laws, and they have
also been trained on how to hold the government accountable for its policies.

I am the
author of the blog www.eyitayoogunyemi.blogspot.com which is a blog space
dedicated to passing in the most ordinary language the knowledge of law to the
public.

I am
committed to building a knowledge based Nigeria, and this commitment has
inspired me to organize mentoring programs for Nigerian youths (tertiary
institution students in particular) on the subject of discovering what to live
for and how to go about it.

I look
forward to ways I can be of assistance to people in their daily endeavours and
my social media profiles are as follows: